Whenever the line "Senior brother, ** was captured by a monster" comes out, will it outline in your mind the image of the sand monk who always carries a heavy burden and always carries a heavy bag, and often persuades Tang Seng and Sun Wukong when they are arguing?In "Journey to the West", the four people have their own characteristics. Although Tang Seng is kind, tenacious, and dares to endure hardships, he is always unable to distinguish right from wrong, and is easily confused by the rhetoric of monsters. He couldn't tell the truth and easily wronged Sun Wukong, causing the audience to often be angry about it. Although Sun Wukong has great powers and is omnipotent, he always gets into trouble. As for Zhu Bajie, he is greedy and lazy, lustful, and often speaks ill of Sun Wukong in front of Tang Seng. Although he later changed and became Sun Wukong's right-hand man, dutifully completing the task of learning scriptures, the audience is still a little disgusted by such people who do not work seriously and sow discord.
In contrast, the role of the sand monk is more likable. Although his strength is average and he often can't defeat monsters, Sha Seng is kind, hard-working, and is the lubricant of the whole team, so he is much loved.
As we all know, "Journey to the West" has been remade many times, and there are countless actors of Sha Seng, but the one who has gained the most public recognition is Yan Huaili in the 86 version of "Journey to the West". The reason why he was able to become a sand monk is thanks to the insight of director Yang Jie. At that time, Yan Huaili was a theater actor at the Beijing People's Art Theater, and although he already had some works, he was not well-known. Knowing that "Journey to the West" was being cast, he quickly sent his acting **, hoping to be selected. As a result, he received a notice from the crew that he was originally asked to play a supporting role as the king of the black chicken country. Although this role was only a supporting role, Yan Huaili accepted it without hesitation. However, when he put on makeup, the more director Yang Jie looked at it, the more he felt that he was suitable to play Sha Seng, so he decided to let him audition. In this way, Yan Huaili won the recognition of the director and successfully got the role of Sha Seng.
In order to better interpret Sha Seng, he even called Chi Chongrui, Liu Xiaolingtong, and Ma Dehua according to the names of the characters in the play. Due to the lack of actors in the crew, Yan Huaili played 10 roles in the entire "Journey to the West", in addition to Sha Seng, he also played the roles of Taishang Laojun, Bull Demon King, and Dragon King of the West Sea. This superb makeup technique and acting skills are so breathtaking that the audience can hardly tell that the characters are actually played by the same person.
However, what is unexpected is that Yan Huaili is the earliest of the four masters and apprentices to die. He passed away on April 12, 2009. In 1993, when he went to shoot, due to the dense forest deep in the mountains, and the humid summer season at that time, the crew members were plagued by mosquitoes in the forest, and the mosquito repellent used did not help. In order to get rid of mosquitoes, the crew had to spray pesticides. Faced with this situation, everyone left in a hurry, but Yan Huaili, who had lost his sense of smell due to severe rhinitis, focused on his lines and did not notice all this. He inadvertently inhaled a large amount of pesticides, which eventually led to irreversible consequences.
After the news of Yan Huaili's critical illness came, the crew of "Journey to the West" rushed to bid farewell to him on his last journey. Ma Dehua, the actor of Zhu Bajie, failed to catch up due to traffic jams, which became a big regret for him. Under the difficult conditions at that time, the reason why "Journey to the West" became a classic was mainly because of the responsible attitude of the crew members to their work. If it weren't for director Yang Jie's pursuit of excellence, strict requirements for the quality of his works, and the efforts of the entire creative team to do a good job in role-playing, "Journey to the West" would not have become an excellent work. Nowadays, the quality of many TV dramas is uneven, and even if the technology is advanced, it is difficult to save its reputation.